ReFrame, founded by Women in Film and the Sundance Institute, launched the data initiative last June in an effort to recognize and promote gender-balanced films and television shows. It said Wednesday that the increase in recipients of the ReFrame Stamp from 12 in 2017 to 20 stemmed from gains in the roles of department heads and women-of-color leads and co-leads. Still, the report noted that there remained shortfalls in several key areas.

“This positive news within the top 100 films is offset by the significant discrepancy in female hires with only four women directors as compared to six in 2017 — and only one of those directors being a woman of color,” it said. “Additionally, the numbers continue to reveal huge disparities in female representation and women of color with only 23% of the top 100 films being written by a female. Only 37% percent of the top 100 films featured female leads, with 9% being women of color.”

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Paul Feig, who received a ReFrame stamp for “A Simple Favor,” said in the announcement that he is hopeful the certification will become as important as the MPAA rating for audiences to help them find films that uphold their beliefs and standards.

“The ReFrame Stamp is a great motivating tool in the march toward parity in our industry,” Feig said. “I am always hyper aware of its criteria and importance whenever I’m looking for new projects, developing them, and putting together our casts and crews. And as an ambassador for ReFrame, I am always trying to make the people I both work with and meet in the industry understand the Stamp and how to qualify for it.”

“Crazy Rich Asians” producer Nina Jacobson said, “The ReFrame Stamp provides something we’ve never had before, a concrete measurement of a producer’s commitment to parity and the language to acknowledge that commitment. It is also an incredibly useful tool that I use as a guide when we staff our productions.”

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